The present invention relates to an image generation system, an image generation method, an information storage medium, and the like.
In recent years, a stereoscopic image generation system has attracted attention in the fields of movies, games, and the like as a system that generates an image having improved presence. The stereoscopic image generation system generates a left-eye image viewed from a left-eye camera, and a right-eye image viewed from a right-eye camera. The player wears stereoscopic glasses so that the player sees the left-eye image with the left eye and sees the right-eye image with the right eye to obtain stereoscopic vision. JP-A-2004-126902 discloses an image generation system that implements such stereoscopic vision, for example.
The stereoscopic effect observed by the player increases as the inter-camera distance between the left-eye camera and the right-eye camera increases. The stereoscopic effect decreases as the inter-camera distance decreases.
However, an image generation system (e.g., game device) has been configured so that the inter-camera distance is fixed. This makes it impossible to implement effective stereoscopic representation (3D representation) depending on the situation.
For example, the inter-camera distance may be changed depending on the scene. For example, the inter-camera distance may be increased in a long-distance scene so that the stereoscopic effect increases, and may be reduced in a short-distance scene so that a short-range object is easily observed.
However, it is difficult for a game device or the like to implement appropriate stereoscopic representation depending on the game situation when merely changing the inter-camera distance depending on the scene. Specifically, the game situation changes in various ways based on operation information input by the player using an operation section, and it is difficult to expect a change in game situation. Therefore, it is difficult to set the inter-camera distance to an appropriate distance depending on the game situation when merely changing the inter-camera distance depending on the scene. For example, even if the character stands in a place where a distant view is obtained, an object may be present in front of the character when the character has turned around based on an operation performed by the player. Therefore, if the inter-camera distance is increased for only the reason that a distant view is obtained, the player may be given a wrong impression when observing the object present in front of the character due to too high a stereoscopic effect.
When the character moves on a map based on an operation performed by the player, the field-of-view state from the character changes in various ways depending on the place on the map. It is difficult to deal with such a change in field-of-view state by merely changing the inter-camera distance depending on the scene. Moreover, an obstacle object may be positioned between the virtual camera (viewpoint) and the character depending on an operation performed by the player. Such a situation cannot be anticipated by merely determining the game scene.